Executive Vice Chairman, Ibm
Search every verified Gary Cohn interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Gary Cohn, vice chairman of IBM and former director of the National Economic Council under President Trump, has appeared on multiple CNBC programs in recent months to discuss the economy, Federal Reserve policy, and the impact of artificial intelligence. In a June 2026 appearance, Cohn said that without the AI and energy sectors, the stock market would be "floundering" and described the two industries as "intertwined." He stated that he believes computing capacity will be overbuilt and will become a commodity, with companies purchasing it from the lowest-cost provider. Regarding AI's effect on employment, Cohn said he is "in the camp that this time is the same" as past technological advancements, arguing that such innovations historically have not led to the "demise of human capital" but have instead grown GDP and created more jobs. Cohn also commented on economic policy and inflation. In June 2026, he said that if a deal to open the Strait of Hormuz is signed, oil prices would "not... fall like a rock overnight" but that a change in psychology could lead to lower prices over time. On the Federal Reserve, Cohn said that new Chair Kevin Warsh "will remove himself from the political pressure" and "do the right thing economically," adding that the Warsh Fed "will look different than the Powell Fed" with less forward guidance and data releases. In July 2026, when asked about IBM's software business, Cohn affirmed that the company's software is "not being disrupted by AI," and noted that companies are beginning to evaluate the return on investment of their AI spending.
“If you strip out AI and energy from the stock market this year, we have a down market. The really the two businesses that are driving market and market value is AI and energy. And they're both intertwined with each other.”
“This whole AI infrastructure and the LLMs themselves become more of a utility infrastructure play? We don't know because it's evolving out over time here. ... I happen to believe we will have overbuilt compute by that point in time, and compute will become a commodity, and companies will buy compute from the lowest cos...”
“Well, it's not going to fall like a rock overnight. You know, we're going to have to see exactly what happens in the straits. It was not clear how quickly they'll open. But as they do open, we will start getting a change in psychology. People will start thinking that prices are going down and they will continue to go d...”
“When it comes to the Federal Reserve, look, we have a new Federal Reserve chairperson, Kevin Warsh. I think Kevin is completely acknowledging where we are in the economy. He understands that we've got inflation at 3-year highs. He also understands that the job market is relatively strong. And he also understands there'...”
“So, Margaret, this is a time to celebrate. We should celebrate America's entrepreneurial spirit. We should celebrate America's engineering capabilities. We should celebrate the fact that we are solving some of the biggest problems in the world. And if we in America were not solving these problems, and the Chinese were,...”
“I'm in the camp that this time is the same. And what I mean by that is if you look back at all of the major technological advancements that we have lived through and before we were live, we read stories about how this was the end of employment. If you go back to the cotton gin or the internal combustion engine or the t...”
“Over 90% of financial transactions in the United States go through an IBM mainframe every day, every minute of the of the day.”
“We have saved over $4.5 billion dollar of expenses and our headcount has not gone down. So, we have been able to take people out of jobs they didn't like doing, move them into jobs with much higher value added to them.”
“If you own assets today, your assets probably appreciate whether it's a house, it's a car, it's a investable asset. Most of these underlying assets are going up in value versus the other side of the K which is a large predominance of our country who's really suffering and really having a difficult time as their input c...”
“You can't announce close to $1 trillion of capex in this country in data centers without having heavy machinery. How do you start building a data center? You move dirt. Once you move the dirt, you put a foundation in, then you start lifting steel. All of those processes need Caterpillar. Caterpillar. And those heavy eq...”
“The increased oil price is going to have an impact on the consumption power of America. On the flip side, all of these other things on the data centers and the build out and the capex is going on. Look, the one thing we have here in this country that we shouldn't forget, we are an oil independent nation. We do not have...”
“I think Kevin is coming into a very interesting time. The good news I think Kevin is unbelievably well equipped. I think we all have forgotten that Kevin was at the Fed in 2008 when we went through the financial crisis, and I don't believe we would have gotten to where we are without Kevin. The Fed did some extraordina...”
“Are we overbuilding data centers that are coming online in 28, 29, and 30? I happen to think we are for a variety of reasons I can go into but just start with the most basic one. The AI technology itself is becoming so much faster and more efficient and it itself can tell a data center how to run more efficiently. Um,...”
“We at IBM, we're an enterprise company. We're not trying to sell anyone in here a direct retail product. We are trying to get inside major companies, even small growing companies, and make sure we set up an infrastructure for you that allows you to manage your data. As as John said, data today is everywhere. It's in al...”
“The one KPI they can tell you is 'we've cut heads' — companies are saying 'we're using AI, therefore I need fewer heads,' but I ultimately don't think that's the truth.”
Gary Cohn, IBM vice chairman and former Trump NEC director, joins ‘Squawk on the Street' to discuss Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh's first semiannual monetary policy testimony to Congress, the outlook for rate cuts, the economic impact of AI, and more.
Gary Cohn, IBM vice chairman and former Trump NEC director, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the latest market trends, what's driving the tech selloff, state of the AI boom, state of the economy, and more.
Gary Cohn, IBM vice chairman and the head of the National Economic Council in President Trump's first term, told "Face the ...
Gary Cohn, IBM vice chairman and former director of the National Economic Council, joins CNBC's 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss his take on the latest inflation report, his expectations for the Fed, and more.
IBM Vice Chairman Gary Cohn joined Katie Greifeld and Romaine Bostick live from the Milken Global Conference in California to discuss the transformative future of AI and how finance will play a role. See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information. Bloomberg Talks curates top interviews from around Bloomberg News. Hear conversations with the biggest names in finance, politics and entertainment. On Bloomberg Talks, we round up interviews with Fortune 500 CEOs, government officials, well-known investors and business leaders. Listen to more Bloomberg Talk…
Gary Cohn, IBM vice chairman and former Trump NEC director, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the state of AI capex spending, state of the economy, impact of Iran war on oil prices, news of White House opposing Anthropic's plan to expand access to Mythos model, the Fed's interest rate outlook, and more.
Questions persist about AI’s return on investment, workforce disruption, supply chain resilience, and the role of policy in unlocking private capital. America’s leading technology and telecom companies are answering the call. The challenges are real, but the pledges to deliver are historic. Gary Cohn, IBM Vice Chairman Rene Haas, Arm Chief Executive Officer John Stankey, AT&T Chairman & CEO Moderator: Sara Eisen, CNBC More from the CNBC Events: https://bit.ly/40ZdNd1 Subscribe to the CNBC Events Marketing Newsletter here: https://cnb.cx/3nJqzht Follow on Instagram: / cnbcevents Follo…
Gary Cohn, former president at Goldman Sachs, joins 'Money Movers' to discuss the impacts of the Iran war, global economic themes, and more.
Gary Cohn, IBM vice chairman and former Trump NEC director, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss news of Block laying off 40% of its workforce due to AI efficiencies, future of AI and the labor market, state of the economy, latest market trends, and more.
Gary Cohn, former Trump economic adviser and vice chairman of IBM, told "Face the Nation" that he believes that President Trump's Fed nominee Kevin Warsh will "take the Fed back to its traditional" norms. "Face the Nation" is America's premier Sunday morning public affairs program. The broadcast is one of the longest-running news programs in the history of television, having debuted Nov. 7, 1954, on CBS. Every Sunday, "Face the Nation" moderator and CBS News senior foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan welcomes leaders, newsmakers, and experts to a lively round table discussion of cu…
Sign in to search the full transcript archive, filter by topic, and access every quote from Gary Cohn.
The summary and quote tags on this profile are produced with AI assistance from verified, first-person interview transcripts, then checked by our team to confirm the speaker's identity and the accuracy of every quote. See how we verify →